FoA 335: Farming isn't natural, but it can be more sustainable with Alex Smith of the Breakthrough Institute

<p>Visit Sound Agriculture: https://www.sound.ag/</p><p>The Breakthrough Institute: https://thebreakthrough.org/ </p><p>Alex Smith Bio &amp; Articles: https://thebreakthrough.org/people/alex-smith</p><p>"To Decarbonize Food Production, Washington Must Invest" https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/to-decarbonize-food-production-washington-must-invest </p><p>"The Problem With Alice Waters and the 'Slow Food' Movement" https://jacobin.com/2021/12/organic-local-industrial-agriculture-farm-to-table/ </p><p>"Fraudulent Foods" https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-17-summer-2022/fraudulent-foods </p><p>I’m very pleased to be joined today by Alex Smith, senior food and agriculture analyst at The Breakthrough Institute, which is a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges.</p><p>Today’s episode might challenge you a little bit. Before I interview guests I ask them to fill out a brief pre-interview form to help me dig into the right areas during the conversation. One way I can tell if I’m going how much I’m going to enjoy an interview is based on how they approach one question in particular. That question is: “What are the top arguments of the critics of the work you do?”. Many times that will be left blank or answered very generically, but it’s when someone gives a thoughtful answer to this question that I really get excited to dig in. Alex gave one of the most comprehensive questions I’ve ever had to this question. And I think I’ll just read this to you, as both a trigger warning for some of you, and way to intrigue most of you. Here is Alex’s answer:&nbsp;</p><p><em>“I think a relatively common critique that I give real weight to is that my work (and Breakthrough's more broadly) has tunnel vision for GHG/land-use and not other enviro/ecological or animal welfare/ethics issues.</em></p><p><em>Another important critique is that by supporting the technologies and practices of large-scale agricultural production, I